everyone assumed that obama would because he had said as much. and when the time came, he looked at it and clearly his political people said to him, you're raising so much more money than mccain, why would you go into that system and limit your spending? so don't go into the system. >>> we've made the decision not to participate in the public financing system for the general election. this means we'll be forgoing more than $80 million in public funds during the final months of this election. it's not an easy decision, and especially because i support a robust system of public financing of elections. >>> and i think that was a practical, political decision, but contrary to everything he had said about the value of public financing. and what we're now learning is, once that cat is out of the bag, it's really hard to put it back in. >> and so we're in a radically different place than we were four years ago. individuals now can give unlimited amounts and corporations to these super pacs. if they give to the allied (c) (4) social welfare group, no one